How are Social Security and the Survivor Benefit Plan (SBP) related?
Congress created SBP intending it to supplement Social Security’s survivor benefit program. The military services, as employers, began contributing to the Social Security fund for active duty servicemembers Jan. 1, 1957, and Congress began subsidizing the cost of SBP Sept. 21, 1972. Knowing that typically, a surviving spouse is entitled to receive the retiree’s full Social Security benefit at age 65 or older, Congress crafted SBP to integrate with military-earned Social Security. This combination ensures receipt of 55 percent of the covered amount of retired pay to a surviving spouse for his or her lifetime and allows SBP to cost less than similar survivor plans. The government considers only a surviving spouse’s entitlement to receive the military retiree’s service-contributed Social Security benefit in determining the Social Security offset. SBP amounts are reduced accordingly. How much will the Social Security offset (SSO) be? The amount of the SSO is determined individually. For a
